


The Rescue

by KingAlanI



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Family, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2015-02-09
Packaged: 2018-02-07 13:24:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1900527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingAlanI/pseuds/KingAlanI
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By Alan Gilfoy in the world of K.A. Applegate.<br/>Here, the Animorphs do manage to rescue Tom from the Yeerk pool. The POD of that canon divergence AU is at the end of #1 The Invasion. Also, this is set starting in 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Rescue

            Jake, in his tiger form, managed to run up to a human and knock him down with a paw swipe. He was raiding the Yeerk Pool right now in order to free his older brother, but Thomas Berenson was not cooperating.

.

Tom had been locked in a cage while his slavemaster fed, and when released, went into a futile rage against his master’s master. Jake had just barely stopped his brother’s unarmed charge on Visser Three. Even the Andalite tail he’d stolen couldn’t reach far enough.

.

            ((You won’t get away for long, Andalite bandits!)) the Visser raged, as he was wont to do.

            ((We still have to worry, but we aren’t Andalites,)) Marco the gorilla whispered to his rapidly retreating comrades.

.          

            ((In desperation, an Andalite warrior clinging to life gave five humans the power to morph,)) Jake explained. ((One of whom was your younger brother.))

            “So it was you riding to my rescue,” Tom said, his first words as a free man, an ability lost when becoming a full member of The Sharing. Jake’s natural body was nightmarishly coalescing out of that of the tiger. “Thank you,” his big brother cried.

.

            He took in the scene around him. “Apparently Marco knows something about gorilla warfare,” he said to someone who knew how to appreciate bad jokes. “Cass is definitely a workhorse,” Tom added, referring to the only one not looking like a monster while reassuming human form.

.

            “Tobias! Demorph!” Jake said anxiously to their fifth.

            ((It’s too late,)) the bird whispered. He had left earlier for this mission, and hid longer during it before making his escape. That was the curse of the gift – those assuming a form for more than two hours were stuck in it. ((This is who I am now. Worse things to be than a red-tailed hawk.))

            “Like a bullied orphan?” Tom guessed of one of his brother’s close friends. That brought an awkward silence, and all involved left it at that.

.

            There was nothing odd about the five walking together to Cassie’s home with a bird flying overhead. However, the conversation was most highly unusual. The Animorphs were happy they’d freed Tom. Some of the other humans had run off. More’s the pity, since most other free humans would call them insane if attempting to recount their stories. Some had died, and the Animorphs didn’t want to dwell on how that compared to being a Controller.

.

The Animorphs realized that they _had_ obtained a very valuable source of intelligence on the Yeerks. “They take our parents?” Jake worried.

“Hell no,” a relieved Tom said. “But the filshiging dapsens behind The Sharing wanted me to recruit them too.” The Sharing was a Yeerk front organization. The Yeerk in Tom’s head insisted that Jake go. Jake knew better. Apparently many people didn’t. Tom had resisted, but the Yeerks had taken him anyway. The Yeerks tried to talk people into becoming their hosts. What sort of sad person would fall prey to that?

((Could’ve been me, but Jake had my back,)) Tobias said. Jake and Tobias had become friends when Jake caught two guys giving Tobias a swirlie. Such abuse might have led Tobias to join The Sharing, where he would’ve been protected, though at a terrible price.

The Sharing was run by Hedrick Chapman, vice principal at their middle school. He’d ensure it was the Yeerks’ job to abuse them, not petty school punks. How many of their classmates had taken that path? That was one of the most harrowing parts of this fight. Anybody could be a Controller, acting normally except when directly involved in Yeerk activities. Temrash one-one-four, the Yeerk that had been in Tom’s head, had done his best to act like Tom’s normal self.

.

“What are filshiging dapsens anyway?” Marco wondered.

“It’s Yeerk for _motherfucking assholes_ ,” Tom explained.

“So you made sure to learn the curse words?” Marco said.

“I used to do that with Earth languages, pieza de merda,” Tom went on.

“It’s pedazo de mierda,” Marco explained, giving better Spanish for ‘piece of shit’. _He probably didn’t learn that at home, though his mother is Latina_ , Jake thought. _Was._ She disappeared nearly two years ago. Her body was never found, just the wreckage of the family boat.

.

They arrived at Cassie’s barn and could now talk more freely. “People will _wonder why_ I _quit The Sharing_ ,” Tom warned.

“Our parents can know, but nobody else can,” Jake suggested.

“It’s not just that. If anybody sees me, they’ll know I escaped. Then they might find the rest of us. If I lie low, they might think I got killed trying to run away,” Tom countered. Visser Three had morphed some sort of octopus hellbeast that spat fireballs.

.

“Can’t much file a missing persons report, you know as well as I do that the cops are full of Controllers,” Tom pointed out

“As if the LAPD couldn’t get any more obnoxious,” Cassie spat out.

.

“So some idiot teenagers with a death wish are our best hope. This is some _Red Dawn_ shit,” Marco observed.

“Hope we’re at least the 1984 version and not the 2012 one,” Tom retorted.

“We could acquire wolverine morphs,” Cassie suggested diplomatically.

“Could I?” Tom wondered.

“We can’t grant the power. The device the Andalite used to grant it to us probably got vaporized along with the rest of his stuff,” Jake admitted. “But you could give us advice on how to counter-infiltrate The Sharing. Let’s see how they like a taste of their own medicine!”

“Hell yeah! Not only that, but intel on other Yeerk activities,” Tom said with righteous fury. The Andalite would’ve been proud of the anger that seeped out of his tone in saying ‘Yeerk’.

.

It wouldn’t surprise people to know Tom played basketball, at least he had before The Sharing. Jake had once feared reporting he hadn’t made the middle school team. That had been about his last normal thought. “Maybe I could still make a decent college team if this ever ends,” Tom hoped.

.

“I always thought Cousin Rachel could be a bear and Marco was a dumb ape. You sure know how to pick ‘em, midget.” Jake was hardly a small boy, but still not as imposing as Tom, and the nickname had carried over from when they were younger. “At least it’s not Cassie calling you that,” Tom whispered. Once that sunk in, the boys got loud and Jake got red.

.

Jake cared not one whit for the teasing, and he doubted the targets did either. It was coming from the real Tom, not a Yeerk mind control slug infesting his head, not any more. Having Tom back offered a better chance to beat those who had taken him.


	2. The Truth

            “Haven’t seen my boys like this in awhile!” Steve Berenson said as Tom and Jake walked in together. “Tom’s been too busy with The Sharing,” he observed. “Figured it was just things changing as he grew up, that I wasn’t supposed to mess with it,” he admitted.

            “To put it very lightly, Dad, The Sharing is the problem,” Tom responded in a whisper. “I discovered a dark secret behind the Boy Scout shit and Jake helped me get away. It’s a very long story, one we need to tell Mom too while we’re sitting down in private.”

 

            It was easy enough to find Jean Grundle Berenson. As a freelance writer, she worked from home. In fact, Jake and Tom had been lucky to find their father at this hour. He was a pediatrician, unwilling to rush through a room full of sick kids the way an office worker might be inclined to skip out on paperwork. He still was saddled with lots of pencil-pushing, though. In fact, some of Tom’s impolite vocabulary came from his father’s commentary on health insurance companies.

 

            Tom had already said there weren’t any Yeerk spy devices in the house. Jake and Tom headed for the basement, where passerby wouldn’t notice anything suspicious where they might aboveground. Their basement didn’t even have any windows at ground level.

 

            “Visser Three would think Stalin was bush league,” Tom said.

            “But what if Stalin had Yeerk technology? Both bad bastards, just with different tools available,” Jake countered. It was a far cry from hanging out with Marco arguing over whether Iron Man could beat Batman.

 

            “Honey, Tom thinks The Sharing is a front for the mob or something,” Dr. Berenson explained as they gathered in the basement. He understood his sons’ serious demeanor. However, like the rest of humanity, he would have trouble grasping the severity of the situation. This force sunk even lower than humanity at its ugliest.

            “Worse than the mafia. Hostile aliens,” Tom said somberly.

 

            Steve and Jean mulled this over during several minutes of silence.

            “I’m afraid you’re right,” Jean said. “You’re mature enough that you wouldn’t make up and pass off something like that.”

            “And you don’t have a history of mental conditions with perception,” his father added.

           

“The Yeerks, they’re called, and I have plenty of things to call them,” Tom reported.

            “What do they need The Sharing for?” Jean wondered.

            “They’re slugs that crawl inside someone’s head to control their brain. They use The Sharing to talk people into that instead of taking them by force,” Tom explained.

            “And you fell for it? What’s her name?” Steve wondered.

            “Tiffany Smith. She was already infested,” Tom admitted. _So that wasn’t just their father teasing._ Tom was in a fragile state after his captivity and the joke with too much truth hadn’t helped.

            “Well, hot girls make guys do really stupid things,” Jake pointed out. He knew that might help with their tension. Jake hoped that sort of thing wouldn’t happen to him. Someone might imply that Jake was safe because Cassie supposedly wasn’t pretty. _Even if Marco or Tom did that, it would go over like a lead balloon_ , Jake thought. Cassandra Atkins was cute in her own way, and an incredibly kind person to anyone and anything.

“But they had to take me, kicking and screaming mind you. I had shown up at one of the _full member_ meetings, and saw the truth.” _No wonder Tom had been so enraged by the sight of Visser Three_ , Jake realized.

            “Now how’d you get out?” Steve wondered.

 

            “That’s where I come in,” Jake tag-teamed. They were gradually bringing in the weirdness. Their parents still seemed to believe them. Jake and Tom were children, but still too old to believe overactive imaginations. Their mother, as a writer, might have an instinct for whether people were just storytelling.

            Jake told about the Andalite fleet getting defeated in Earth orbit. “One of their fighter pilots crash-landed in that abandoned construction site.”

            “Going through there was even more dangerous than I thought,” Jean observed.

            “Let me guess, doing something like that, Marco was there with you,” Steve piled on.

            “And Cassie, Rachel and Tobias,” Jake agreed, explaining that Elfangor told them as much as he could before the Yeerks came for him and gave them the power to morph.

“That seems rather useful,” Steve said. “Especially since Cassie’s family runs that wild animal shelter and her mom’s a vet at The Gardens,” he realized. Out of shock, he was barely able to retain his composure, but he was still gamely trying to speak clearly.

            “So you turned into big animals to rescue your big brother,” Jean guessed, correctly.

 

            “Rachel was an elephant, not a bear,” Jake pointed out to Tom.

            “I had reasons for not thinking clearly,” Tom said defensively.

            “He was right that Cassie is a workhorse, though. Marco practices gorilla warfare, but I went for a tiger,” Jake said right before beginning the morph and demonstrating the thoughtspeak that came with it.

Jean screamed; Jake supposed his father’s medical experience kept him from being grossed out too. All of them except Cassie looked like hell during the process. So there would be one less thing to shock her parents with.

Jake reappeared in his thin T-shirt and skintight bike shorts, about all the clothing they could morph. This happened when using technology designed by and for a species with fur. Thoughtspeak was the Andalites’ natural means of communication, but it made for wonderful technology. The morph and demorph definitely had convinced Jake and Tom’s parents, after the conversation mostly had.

 

            “But since these alien slugs control people’s brains, how’d you get him to come with you?” Jean asked, attempting to plug a plot hole.

            Tom was glad to explain the critical weakness created by the Yeerks’ need for Kandrona rays. “So for a short time Yeerk victims become prisoners instead of mind control slaves,” he explained, having learned the hard way. “And midget here decided to lead a prison break!” he said triumphantly.

 

            “We can also morph small or otherwise innocuous creatures for spying purposes. That’s the way we found out how and when to strike. ‘Homer’ took a stroll along the beach during a Sharing meeting,” Jake said of morphing the family dog.

            “That power is amazing. I’m sure that’s not the end of it. What’s the catch?” Jean said.

            “If it’s been more than two hours, you’re stuck. Tobias is a hawk now. I was gonna roost him in the attic and bring him hamburger or something.”

            “Yeah, we gotta take care of our folks,” Tom agreed. “Tell that to his no-good relatives.”

            “I’ll tell the uncle here who doesn’t care that he’s with the aunt out east who doesn’t care, and vice versa,” Jake countered.

            “Well, him and Tom will both be hiding out here,” Steve observed.

            “We were gonna assume the Yeerks lost track of me during the escape. I could camp in the basement. With Mom working from home, it won’t be odd that the house is busy. Unfortunately, midget can’t give me the morphing power just because he has it himself. Being a leopard would have been cool.”

            “They think we’re Andalites that survived the space battle, considering the power to morph. They aren’t looking for humans, and we better not give them the idea to,” Jake declared. “It’s not just The Sharing. Anyone might be a Controller who’s acting normal,” Jake warned.

 

            “How’d your parents take it?” Marco asked as soon as they got settled at the barn.

            “They believed the truth and understand the need to hide Tom,” Jake reported. “But what next?” he worried.

            “Well, we can’t exactly ask President Flores-Rivera to borrow a few thousand Marines,” Marco quipped. “No way, Alejandro.”

            Jake figured the Yeerks wouldn’t have infiltrated that far up. _Would they?_ he worried. Even if they really hadn’t, how could they reach the White House without tipping off Controllers along the way? How could they get the President to believe? The stranger of such significance presented a far greater challenge than their own relatives.

 

            “Probably should tell my mom too, especially to let her know what really happened to Tom,” Rachel announced. Naomi Jackson was divorced from Dan Berenson. However, it had been relatively amicable. Amongst other things, she still thought of Tom and Jake as her nephews. Dan and Naomi had been driven apart by busy careers, him as a newscaster and her as a tax lawyer. She knew there were things worse than the IRS, but would learn how much worse.

 

“Jordan and Sara aren’t hearing a damn thing,” Rachel insisted on her sisters’ behalf.

            “Yeah, we’re too young for this shit, let alone them. And besides, they might not be able to stay quiet,” Marco pointed out on two fronts. Marco, Cassie and Tobias were all only children. Steve and Dan had a sister Ellen who now lived in another town with her husband and their four children. They were safe there; so were Jean’s family in some other city. They’d definitely be left out of it.

 

For now, the Animorphs were still stalling until another Andalite fleet arrived. Their spirits were boosted by the result of this raid on the Yeerk Pool; it was not the end, not even the beginning of the end, but perhaps the end of the beginning.


	3. The Cave

            Jake was bringing a lot of Tom’s stuff down to the basement to lower the risk of anybody seeing his older brother through the windows.

The Sharing used its activities to draw people in as well as provide cover stories for meetings of those who were already Controllers. Either way, camping trips were a common choice. That was proving to be a silver lining, since Tom’s gear could go on the lowest level of their house instead of in a tent or cabin. “Just get me the sleeping bag. Mattresses? I don’t need no steenkin’ mattresses. Those are for old guys with bad backs, like Chapman.”

.

“Though, as we know, he’s evil even for an assistant principal,” Jake responded. Hanging out with Marco their entire lives, some of his flair for dark humor was bound to rub off on Jake.

“Yeah, the Yeerk in his head is Visser Three’s third-in-command. Iniss two-two-six, Sub-Visser Eighty-two,” Tom explained. “The Yeerk Empire has a few dozen Vissers and several hundred Sub-Vissers. I haven’t heard about any Vissers here besides you-know-who, but there have gotta be at least a few other Subs around.” _Boys our age should be talking about video game strategy, not serious military intelligence_ , Jake mused.

.

After the bulk of the camping equipment, Jake started bringing down Tom’s clothes. “Clippers? What’s next, Raiders merch?” Jake teased as he pulled out a red and blue jersey.

“Hey, the Lakers aren’t so hot lately, midget,” Tom replied. Being free to pull this dumb brother shit still meant the world to them. Besides, they were clinging to what few remotely normal things remained in their lives. “You know I don’t like football,” he said teasingly.

“Too bad we don’t like hockey either. Kings got another Cup; I only noticed because that and the NBA Finals games were on different days,” Jake pointed out.

.

“Guess I’m a glutton for punishment, midget,” Tom admitted.

They both recognized a greater weight behind the words. Yet Jake decided to continue poking fun at it. _Marco would be proud_ , Jake assessed. “About that … I saw your posters. I’m not sure you have the best taste in pinups. Are you trying to piss Dad off?” Their old man may or may not have been bothered by the general idea, but Jenny McCarthy aggravated him to no end, and Tom had put up her October 1993 Playboy centerfold.

“I’m not taking her medical advice,” Tom pointed out. “Yeah, pretty much every goddamn doctor thinks her science is bullshit, and even if she were right, she’s acting as if autism is worse than the fucking horrible diseases vaccines go after.”

“Dad’s right about that,” Jake agreed. “But I’m afraid that now that we’re in a war, whether to be a fan of unethical entertainers will be the least of our moral quandaries. And since Mom’ll be down here for the laundry room, pantry or whatever, you probably should put that stuff away anyway.”

“Yeah, us guys can act like that by ourselves, but we gotta behave when the ladies are around,” Tom said. “You can look at some of the stuff yourself if you want.”

“Not my style,” Jake said defensively. “Marco wouldn’t mind some of it, though.”

“If Cassie says anything … three words for ya, Jeremy Jason McCole,” Tom shot back triumphantly. Mr. McCole was a teen heartthrob known for his role on the TV show _Power House_. Apparently Cassie was a fan. “crittercass.tumblr.com interacts quite a lot with fyjjmc.tumblr.com,” Tom pointed out. “I’ve been on there for basketball stuff, couldn’t help but looking around for our friends.” Tom threw a falsetto that sounded nothing like Cassie or Rachel, but was funny nevertheless. “I watch _Power House_ for the plots … it really does have some good plots.”

“Suppose you gotta stay offline. Who knows what they can trace even if you don’t make it obvious,” Jake advised prudently.

.

A few days later, Jake took a bunch of Tom’s stuff over to Marco’s. Tom couldn’t use it all in his limited hiding status, and even before The Sharing took him, he had more than he knew what to do with. “When your prized possessions start to weigh you down…” Dad had hummed. _The Beatles, And Your Bird Can Sing_. He’d made clear he thought _Revolver_ was one of the great LP’s. Jake and Tom agreed it was good, but leaned towards stuff of their own era.

.

The Crosettis didn’t quite have that problem anymore. Marco’s dad Peter had lost his good computer engineering job after being unable to deal with Eva’s death. He was doing some sort of grunt work now. Nothing against that, somebody had to do it, but Peter wasn’t suited to it. Their current neighborhood didn’t scare Jake so much anymore. Street punks were nothing compared to Controllers. Still, Jake brought his bike inside rather than leaving it outside, even locked up.

.

Jake had more than Tom’s things to unload. Marco’s father opened the door. “We heard about your brother. Sadly, I have too much of an idea what youse guys are going through.” The other Animorphs weren’t telling their parents yet after all. They didn’t need the worry. If the Animorphs had to disappear on a mission, the Berenson parents could corroborate alibis.

“Yeah, it’s starting to sink in that he ain’t coming back,” Jake choked out fairly convincingly. “It ain’t helping to have his things around. He had nearly a foot on Marco, but I figured my buddy could use some of the things besides the clothes.”

.

Marco had a boom box out in his room. “Listening to one of Dad’s old tapes,” he pointed out, handing the case to Jake.

 _The Ramones – Brain Drain_ , Jake read. “Zero Zero UFO, real funny,” he announced.

“Would you expect anything less from me?” Marco stated. “Don’t wanna be buried in a pet ‘sematary’,” he went on.

“You sing as well as you drive,” Jake countered. If his performance in racing video games was any indication, it was a good thing for people on or near California roads that he was only 14.

“Seems I’m gonna be operating a stick soon,” Marco said as he saw Tom’s magazines. Admittedly, that would distract from the backpack, duct tape, tools, and assorted media.

.

It would soon be time to publicly fake Tom’s death. To free humans, he’d drowned after being caught in a rip current. Fighting with The Sharing about what happened to Tom would be too close to the truth. Jake needed Controllers poking around like he needed a hole in his head. To the Yeerks, he’d died trying to escape the Yeerk pool, his body rendered unidentifiable by Visser Three’s fireballs. As such, his ‘friends’ from The Sharing were unlikely to care. _We_ are _counting on Yeerk callousness_ , Jake thought. If the Yeerks found them, it would definitely be all over for him, his friends and family personally. It may very well be the end for humanity as a whole. It wouldn’t bode well for free peoples throughout the galaxy.

.

Their father the doctor was all too familiar with when kids couldn’t be saved. Their mother the writer could be creative. Knowing it wasn’t true was comforting but also macabre. Marco also was all too familiar with this. It was almost the two year anniversary of his mother’s disappearance, ‘also’ lost at sea, so the grief for somebody would be real. “Wish I could at least pull a Tom Sawyer and watch it myself,” the very much alive Tom said as his family left the house.

.

 _Thomas Stephen Berenson, December 28 1997 – September 27 2014, Son and brother full of energy, yet Nature is stronger than us all_. Tom’s stone would be placed next to that of Marco’s mother. _Eva Morales Crosetti, January 23 1970 – October 11 2012, Devoted wife and mother, Taken by the sea they all loved_.


	4. The Addition

            ((Fuck rollercoasters!)) Marco reviewed. Jake had to agree that there was something amazing about flying. Tobias was right that there would be worse animals to be trapped as. The other Animorphs had soon followed him in acquiring bird morphs, also with the help of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic run by Cassie’s family.

 

            Now they were practicing the morphs, practice that was quite enjoyable. It could be hard to do what you wanted with a morph when the creature’s instincts took over, but the instinct on how to fly was needed here.

 

            Marco and Cassie were both ospreys, Rachel a bald eagle, Jake a peregrine falcon. ((You can outrace even me,)) Tobias told Jake. Tobias was coming to accept his new form. He was proud of his new species, attentive to its rivalries with other birds.

He had left the roost in Jake’s attic and the scraps of hamburger available there. He was now living where a hawk might, in the woods near Cassie’s barn. He was now eating what a hawk would. ((Your feathers are looking a little mousy there, bird boy,)) Marco said. Marco’s knack for thinking everything was funny seemed to help soothe Tobias.

((Physically, it was easy to let the predator instinct take over. Yet it was difficult to watch, to look at myself afterwards. The first one was the hardest, then it got easier,)) Tobias explained. At thirteen, his fellow Animorphs already knew what he really meant.

 

Obviously, Tom couldn’t leave the house to meet with them, yet the Animorphs didn’t want to all go over there. Tobias’ hawk body would clearly be suspicious. Rachel hadn’t spent that much time with her cousins, maybe with her parents’ divorce pulling her away from her father’s relatives. Jake and Cassie may have grown closer even without being fellow Animorphs, but people may still have wondered why all five, now all four, were together. So they avoided being a group in public. Before the war was only a couple weeks ago, but it was a clear line in their minds, bright red growing darker.

 

Marco had been hesitant to join the war and stay in it. Peter had been wrecked by Eva’s death, and Marco worried what would happen to the man if he lost his son as well as his wife. However, Marco had been encouraged by the victory of freeing Tom.

 

((Tom said Chapman has Yeerk communication equipment in his basement,)) Jake passed along.

((Well, maybe we should go see what he’s up to down there,)) Marco said in a tone of voice that made clear he was stating the obvious.

((Melissa’s cat seems like the best way to get in,)) Rachel suggested. As a friend of Chapman’s daughter, would she be less suspicious, or dangerously recognizable? ((Fluffer McKitty, what a name for a snarling tomcat!)) Rachel warned.

((Bait a crate with treats, always works with Homer,)) Jake offered.

 

They went towards the Chapmans’ neighborhood. Rachel carried the cat stuff, Cassie as her backup on the ground. The others joined Tobias in the air. ((Someone’s letting the cat out,)) bird boy reported. ((Door’s closed,)) he followed up.

 

“Here kitty kitty kitty,” Rachel said, a classic because it worked, especially when waving catnip. The cat approached the smell and Cassie shut the crate door behind him.

Playing with the plant, he didn’t seem to mind being locked up. ((Looks like kitty scored some good weed,)) Marco joked.

Fluffer was about to get even more mellow. Rachel reached through the bars to touch him. When acquiring a new morph, the animal went into a trance.

 

((I wish I was this agile in human form,)) Rachel commented. _Cats_ would _make excellent gymnasts_ , Jake thought. Rachel was friends with Chapman’s daughter Melissa, and gymnastics classes were one thing the young women had in common.

 

It was Melissa who had let the real Fluffer out and the morphed Rachel in. Her Controller parents couldn’t be bothered. Tom was right – the Yeerks had taken her mother as well. Rachel was reporting to Tobias overhead, who relayed to the other Animorphs. They Animorphs didn’t dare cluster too close to the Chapman residence. Once Rachel made it out, she would give an expanded explanation.

 

((It’s eight o’clock and Chapman’s going down to the basement,)) Rachel reported a few minutes after she got in. Tobias lost contact with her. They hoped the distance or material was simply blocking the thought-speak, like some alien cell phone signal. Thought-speak did seem to have limited range.

 

            They began to leave the area and discuss the mission while still in morph.

((That’s why Melissa’s been acting strange. She thinks her parents don’t love her anymore, but doesn’t understand they do and can’t show it,)) Rachel began. ((But she’s gonna have bigger problems. The Yeerks are taking her too!))

((The filshiging dapsens!)) Marco shouted.

((It gets worse. Her parents had cooperated to keep her away from the Yeerks,)) Rachel said, her rage even more obvious right now. ((They went into a spasm when Visser Three gave the order.))

((Like when Tom’s face twitched when his Yeerk tried to get me to join the Sharing,)) Jake said. Determined hosts could, for a moment, slightly resist their Yeerk’s control.

((More than that, but same idea,)) Rachel agreed.

 

((Visser Three is riding Chapman’s ass to find the Andalite bandits, namely us,)) Rachel added. ((At least they still think we’re Andalites, and they said nothing about Tom,)) she finished.

((I’ll take what good news we can get,)) Jake responded. They were only a few weeks into this war and he was already starting to slip into an incredibly somber mood.

 

((Any idea what we get to do next?)) Marco said sarcastically.

((The Yeerks use a transport ship to pick up water from lakes in the area. It’s about to make another run,)) Rachel reported. ((Obviously, their hosts have to drink too, but Visser Three reminded Chapman it’s needed to operate the fusion reactors that power Yeerk equipment.))

 

Jake would be available on Halloween. As he told his parents, “Well, I’ve gotten too old for trick-or-treating.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My new fic Lemon Cakes is also set in this storyline. It has M-rated scenes and more of a focus on Jake and Cassie’s relationship. It’s currently at a later point in the story, making it a de facto spoiler.


	5. The Truck

            It was bitterly ironic that Tom was free but nevertheless confined. The Animorphs couldn’t spend much time with any of their families, having a war to fight and needing to at least keep up the pretense of doing well in school. Tom could keep himself busy and the Animorphs less so by helping with their homework.

 

            “Well, we don’t need to worry about coming up with Halloween costumes,” Jake pointed out, channeling some sarcasm from Tom.

            “Yeah, it’s in our blood,” Marco responded.

            “Seriously, no morphing that’s not related to the Yeerks. We can’t afford to blow our cover on stupid stuff,” Jake continued testily.

            “Marco provides us with plenty of stupid stuff already,” Rachel commented. _Did they actually hate each other, or was it a thinly veiled obsession?_ Jake wondered.

            “Even something important is probably a small problem compared to the Yeerks,” Jake added. “Like a bird held captive as a mascot for a used car dealer,” he specified, referring to a stunt pulled by Tobias with Rachel’s help.

            “Heard it was a girl red-tailed hawk. Apparently Black Widow isn’t jealous,” Marco said, using his nickname for how badass Miss Berenson was.

            “Anyway, the Yeerks would know all too well what it means when animals behave strangely. They would also find it strange for ‘Andalite bandits’ to be so involved in small-scale Earth issues,” Jake reminded his team.

 

            Visser Three had reveled in the moment of killing Elfangor. The Animorphs would unfortunately never be able to forget the horrors of the day everything changed. A specific moment came to Jake’s mind. “He said the Yeerks would need two thousand Pools to infest all of humanity,” he said. He then started wondering around about what this meant. “They’re hard enough to fight with one Pool to deal with. Are they waiting until they can enslave all of us or are they going to take who they can and kill off the rest?”

            “Either way, it pays to stall them, and we have to reveal them before they’re ready for it,” Marco assessed.

 

            “So what are we gonna do about that dihydrogen monoxide acquisition vessel?” Marco wondered. Their science teacher would be proud. This terminology was from a recent project about how the media and the average person could misunderstand scientific topics.

            “Tom said that old man Walker is apparently still using the same lesson plans,” Jake reported. “Well, it’s still a problem.”

            “Imagine what he’d think of the kind of genetically modified organisms we are,” Marco joked.

 

            “Back to business, we could swim up the intake tubes,” Marco suggested. “The pipes would have to be big enough. And I don’t see why they’d have blades. At worst, we’d run into a filter.”

            “Eagles and ospreys both eat fish,” Cassie pointed out.

            “So me, Rachel or you could acquire something for us to acquire,” Marco said.

            “Catch and release,” Cassie said agreeably. “If we must do this,” she added somewhat sourly.

 

            The Yeerks picked different lakes throughout the mountains so people wouldn’t get suspicious about decreasing water level in any particular location. When Rachel was spying on Chapman, she had overheard which body of water the Yeerks would be using for the time being.

            The Animorphs who could still morph headed out through the woods as wolves. They found Human-Controllers thinly veiled as park rangers or something like that. There were a few Bug fighters and Hork-Bajir ground troops, but the Yeerks were relying on the fake foresters hiding in plain sight.

 

           The fake wolf pack encountered a very real one. If it came down to a fight, that would be one of those times where it was a problem to have sentience but not the morph’s experience. Yet the Animorphs realized that retreating wasn’t a good idea either.

A dead rabbit was one thing the wolves may have fought over.Tobias provided a distraction, diving for the carcass. Birds of prey had evolved to grab that prey with their talons, but the bunny was too big for him to carry too far too fast. However, the diversion still worked.

Tobias said he saw the same bird he and Rachel had rescued. So all of the Animorphs had run into problems neither human nor alien. And the Yeerk water ship remained just as much of a threat.

 

As usual, the Animorphs would have to operate on the weekend. The rest of the week, Tobias was nowhere to be seen. Rachel gave the impression that he was still having trouble adapting to life as a hawk. When he came back, Rachel seemed to have soothed him. _Like Cassie sometimes did for me,_ Jake thought. _For all the Animorphs_ , he added quickly. _We could use the help thinking clearly._

 

This time, they avoided the real wolves. Tobias was the first to notice a cave near the lake. The bushes in and around the entrance scraped up the physically human Animorphs, but that was the sort of minor injury that was easily resolved by morphing.

Rachel morphed to eagle to go fishing. ((Don’t clench your talons too tightly,)) Tobias advised. ((We want it to make it back into the water,)) he said. Cassie looked pleased he remembered that part of their plan. Besides, the Animorphs were of the understanding that they couldn’t acquire a morph from a dead creature.

 

“It’s a trout,” Cassie observed.

“The lake was out of lemons and tartar sauce?” Marco said incredulously. The fish stopped flopping as Marco sent it into an acquisition trance. Cassie and Jake took their turns as Rachel returned to human form.

 

Bird Marco put the fish back where it came from. The Yeerks weren’t here yet, so the Animorphs had time to morph in the water rather than fly Talon Airlines in fish morph.

 

However, the Animorphs expected the Yeerks soon. ((Controllers incoming!)) Tobias warned when they finally approach

((This thing is utterly huge!)) Tobias reported. Jake hadn’t really noticed; maybe it was hard to sense below the surface of the lake. Jake supposed it had to be. Maybe it could be, not needing to carry lots of crew or weapons, and not needing to maneuver in combat. On Earth’s oceans, the largest cargo ships and passenger vessels were bigger than even the longest aircraft carriers.

((Like flying, amusement parks ain’t got nuthin’ on this,)) Marco added as the trout bodies sensed a massive sucking motion. The Animorphs weren’t exactly knocked out, but once the sensory input became more clear, they noticed they were in a large tank.

 

Now they needed to get out of the tank, but they were nowhere near the top. They also needed to get out of morph. ((Now would be a good time to learn how to swim,)) Jake commented.

((Just paddle, dawg,)) Marco replied. Jake didn’t need to hear whose thoughtspeak voice it was to know who generated those thoughts.

 

Fortunately, there were no Yeerks right in this room. Maybe they were afraid the water itself would be turned against them. Maybe they guarded it from the outside, expecting infiltration from the other direction.

 

Eventually the tank filled up enough that they could grab the rim. Rachel was best at doing the pullup, and not only because she was nearly as tall as Jake. Gymnastics didn’t leave you ripped, but it did develop strength. It was a steep drop from there, but their bird morphs offered some ability to glide to the deck.

 

            ((The Yeerks will eventually figure…)) Jake said before he was interrupted.

            “Andalite bandits in water area!” a Yeerk used a Hork-Bajir mouth to say. Raptor hearing picked it up well even though the walls of who knows what metal.

            “Ghafrash!” another answered.

            “Haff hruthins for Visser,” the first voice seemed to correct.

            ((…out that something’s going on. Combat morphs!)) Jake finished and ordered. _Well, the last time I turned into a tiger I saved Tom_ , he thought hopefully.

 

When the Hork-Bajir barged in, their blades only seemed to annoy the magnificent beasts. The Animorphs’ screams were a mixture of pain and rage that no one should have to know, let alone a bunch of fourteen year olds. The Controllers seemed to hold their Dracon fire around the water tanks. There was nothing the Animorphs could do about the thick glassy material, but an energy blast would likely damage it.

 

Eventually, battered Animorphs barged through. ((Storm the bridge!)) Jake ordered. ((Marco, you not being able to drive is a good thing. We want this thing to crash!)) he added.

((Besides, I don’t think paws would work the controls,)) Marco agreed.

 

They found the bridge several innocent host bodies later, several more Hork-Bajir, and a few human. ((Not much joy over this joystick,)) Marco said as he knocked out a Hork-Bajir to take the helm. Cassie took a bite out of the poor pilot before the stun wore off – even harder than a paw swipe, and coming from the one who was especially distressed by the carnage.

 

Marco messed with the controls until he figured out which made the craft go downwards. Then he jammed a button to send the ship further into a dive. ((Where does a four hundred pound gorilla fly to? Anywhere he wants!)) Marco said with exhilarated relief.

The truck ship might be escorted by Bug fighters or some would be scrambled. Well, if they shot it down, that was exactly what the Animorphs wanted. The ship shuddered, but Jake wasn’t sure if that was due to a Dracon hit or the mechanical stress Marco was putting the vessel under. ((You guys be ready to abandon ship in bird morph,)) Marco suggested. ((I should be right behind you. This is insane!))

The ship soon slammed into some trees – well away from the original lake, but still in the mountains. This minimized casualties on the ground but also kept the existence of the Yeerks from being revealed. The Animorphs _had_ apparently destroyed the ship, and would take what victories they could get.


	6. The Dance

            To be thrust into a secret war as teenagers was not conducive to sleep.

It was hard to rest with the scream of battle in their heads. Jake’s parents knew why he woke up yelling in a cold sweat; Tom _really knew_. Cassie and Marco pretended that scary stories still frightened them. Rachel acted as if they ever had.

The Animorphs still had to pretend they were regular middle school students. This was plenty time consuming enough on its own. As it was, the Animorphs found themselves doing a mediocre job on homework late at night after missions.

 

Going over the work was a chance to talk with Tom. “I know about what led you to The Sharing, but what pulled you away from hoops?”

“It was harder to care about the game watching how the Clippers were doing at it. I figured I ought to get serious about chasing girls. So petty, and so much ill came of it, I know.”

 

Marco didn’t care much about sports. He avoided taking anything seriously, including the process of being a superfan, let alone an athlete. Soccer in particular was a reminder of his mother. She had kept that and many other parts of her culture. Now Marco would bring up bad memories if he tried to connect with that.

 

President Flores had taken a different approach. He was born and raised here, despite what some of his most deranged political enemies insisted. Anyway, he had grown up with soccer but switched to basketball to help assimilate.

 

Jake stumbled into school one Monday morning, and the other Animorphs weren’t in much better shape. They were even more zombified than other students who were not Controllers. “They have a hunger for brains, that’s for sure,” Marco joked, with the sense to not blurt out ‘Yeerks’. They’d been friends since they were babies, so it would make sense for them to still be hanging out. Rachel and Cassie didn’t go that far back, but they still knew each other for some time before becoming Animorphs. Yet seeing all four of them together on a regular basis might’ve raised suspicions.

 

            On the way out of school, he saw a poster on a bulletin board. It read ‘Fall Dance / November 1st 2014 7 PM / Main Gym’. _Well, if Cassie and I are brave enough to deal with Visser Three, I can have the guts to ask her out_ , Jake told himself.

            He found the most direct route from Point A to Point B. Marco would be proud of that, and jealous of Jake for actually having a girlfriend. “Cassie, wanna go dance with me the day after Halloween?”

            “Why not? It’ll be fun. And you’re the only person I’d want to go with,” she accepted. “Hey, are you trying to ply me with Hawaiian Punch and ginger ale?” she jokingly worried.

            “And rainbow sherbert. But it still wouldn’t be as sweet as you,” he said, brushing her cheek. Not only did she smile, she puckered her lips at him.

            He was instinctively drawn closer to her. Her lips tasted plenty sweet themselves. No smell of perfume, no sight of makeup, but that was part of who Cassie was. Jake couldn’t expect her to change for him, and he was falling in love with her, not someone she could hypothetically be. He actually had a picture of her in work clothes attempting to medicate a badger.

 

            Rachel was excited. “About time, you two!” she said cheerfully. She was happy for her cousin and best friend, also happy that she would be in charge of getting them dressed up.

            Rachel probably really wished she could have taken Tobias. Even Marco knew better than to say that. Jake wasn’t quite the popular type like Rachel was, but he wasn’t in the shadows like Tobias had been. Cassie simply didn’t draw attention from most people. _Their loss_ , Jake thought, smiling.

            This didn’t call for ties, but Jake was reminded that Rachel could actually tie one and he couldn’t. The secret was to leave it tied, loosen one just enough to get it off. Rachel got Jake to wear a button-down shirt and decent pants. _Any pants seem nice compared to bike shorts, though_ , Jake realized. “Betcha Cassie doesn’t think the loose-fitting shirt is an improvement,” Marco joked. “Oh, Jake, your muscles make you look even better than Marco,” he said mockingly, his second sentence making clear the meaning of his first.

            “That’s not difficult,” Jake said, maybe on Rachel’s behalf.

            Cassie tolerated a simple dress, and even that had been a challenge. Jake cared who was in it. “Sounds like it would be easy to get her out of it,” Marco speculated.

            “She’s a real person in our real life, not some distant fantasy,” Jake corrected angrily.

 

            They weren’t going to announce their relationship until it was clear it was working out well. Jake’s parents already had more than enough to be nervous about. If Cassie started to have trouble at school because of the war, they might think she was distracted by Jake and leave it at that.

 

            Jake and Cassie were one of the few couples actually on the basketball court turned dance floor. Most of the kids, boys or girls, were standing around nervously near the edges of the room. Having infiltrated an alien base, the lair of one of their officers, and hijacking one of their ships, it was easy for Jake to ask Cassie for a twirl.

            They didn’t leave room for Jesus, but they weren’t practically grinding on each other either. However, they still managed to be awkward. He got to spinning her fast enough that she practically fell down, and not as a smooth dip or anything like that, of course.

 

            Cassie had powerful intuition. Tonight, the Animorphs were able to give a lot of things a rest, including that. Yet she _had_ been right about the punch bowl.

 

            “That was fun,” Cassie said cheerfully at the end of the night, and she meant it. She let on that she also had something less amusing to say. “I didn’t want to mess up our date by talking about the war, but I’ve been having these dreams that are really weird even by Animorph standards. Tobias and I both think there’s something really weird going on in the ocean.”


	7. The Survivor

Cassie explained that she and Tobias were having dreams about something, someone, calling to them from beneath the water. They were having trouble explaining it, and decided to talk about it more in a full group meeting later.

 

Each half of the couple returned directly to their own houses. Cassie’s parents knew she understood the basic biology associated with romantic relationships. Hopefully that could help avoid an awkward social talk.

 

“Cassie is the best morpher, and Tobias has a, well, unique, relationship with it. So this has to have something to do with the Andalites,” Marco realized.

“Saw something weird on YouTube that might have something to do with this. Some old dude found an odd piece of metal on the beach,” Jake added.

Rachel found the clip on her phone, and it reminded all of them of the Andalite fighter. “Apparently we get to do a search and rescue mission, and keep the Yeerks from doing something besides rescuing,” Rachel announced. She was not saying any of that ironically – she relished the upcoming fight, as usual.

Marco, also was his regular self. “Let’s go to the beach,” he said with resignation.

 

A bunch of Yeerks had the same idea, as they’d expected. The Animorphs had to spend most of the trip hiding from Controllers, but did learn something by overhearing them. Visser Three was cracking the whip on his subordinates, that was nothing new, but it sounded like the dreams were especially intense for him.

 

There were six dolphins at The Gardens, and apparently the person who named them liked _Friends_. “Hope the five of us and Tom will become a famous list of names,” Marco said.

It was no trouble drawing them to the edge of the tank to be acquired. It was clear that the dolphins were playful, and smart too – at least for animals. “Dogs of the water?” Jake said, reminded of Homer.

“Close enough,” Cassie said sweetly. _Must love dogs and any other animal_ , Jake thought.

 

To avoid the beach crowd, they’d start from a nearby river. The doglike playfulness was even clearer once getting into morph. The dolphin mind wanted to get out to the ocean – not so much to be in saltwater, but to have more room to swim and jump around. This was more pleasant than gaining control of some morphs, but still took a lot of time. Maybe they could make a game out of finding the Andalites.

 

Yet there was no way running into sharks could be fun. Their echolocation picked up a few attacking a whale. The Animorphs needed to get on with the mission, but were somehow drawn to the whale. Also, they didn’t want to leave a group of sharks in their rear. Running into them soon became as literal as it could be underwater. And it definitely wasn’t fun. It stung when they rammed the sharks.

One of the sharks was wounded, and his fellows turned on him. Much the same principle had been helpful in fights against Taxxons. Marco was grievously injured as well. Morph technology was useful for healing as well as shapeshifting. Surfacing with a demorph and remorph would be the obvious thing to do.

Cassie’s calming presence coached him through the process, but they got more help from the whale than expected, as it lifted Marco’s wounded dolphin body towards where water meets air. The whale definitely knew what he was doing, and knew a lot more than that. He spoke without words, of gratitude and a long history. In all his generations, he had never seen a little one turn into a human; that must be his name for dolphins. It had another unique recent memory – grass and trees underwater, and a creature that the Animorphs recognized as an Andalite.

 

Marco had been too out of it to grasp the whale’s message, or maybe it’s another thing Cassie and Tobias were more sensitive to. “Well, we have a better idea of what we’re looking for and where,” Cassie pointed out.

“I think we should all reset the two-hour clock and head out there, before the Yeerks get any closer,” Jake said. Cassie was glad he was making the call. As leader, he had taken it upon himself to make the tough decisions. Cassie would’ve found it especially hard to make so much of these dreams of hers. This way, she would be navigator rather than pilot.

 

Jake’s parents knew why he was gone. Would they be called on their alibis for the rest? Obviously, Marco was supposedly over there. _They’d heard_ that Rachel had dragged Cassie to the mall. _This is only slightly less exhausting for Cass_ , Jake joked to himself. If Rachel was supposedly at Cassie’s house and vice versa, the story could’ve easily fallen apart.

 

After at least an hour of swimming, the Andalite ship was impossible to miss. It was a third of a mile across – even the biggest human ships weren’t that long, let alone that wide. They went for a hatch. Here, the airlock cycled out seawater rather than the vacuum of space, but just as surely handled different pressures. The Animorphs could finally breathe, but then felt themselves get knocked out.

 

They awoke to an Andalite standing over them with something that looked very much like a Dracon beam. “At least this guy isn’t Visser Three,” Marco pointed out. He looked bigger and had an ominous aura about him which this guy didn’t.

The Andalite recoiled at the name. ((Don’t say that!))

“He who must not be named,” Marco said. “Wizard Hitler and Space Hitler.” The Andalite agreed with the first part and obviously didn’t understand the second part. The Animorphs had bigger things to explain, so they let it go.

 

It eventually became clear that they were on the same side. He was Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, a cadet not sent into the disastrous main battle. His name was quickly shortened to Ax, and that stuck. They didn’t use Prince Elfangor’s full name either.

 

This was his younger brother, making things very personal. Ax had a hard time believing the news. Naturally, he seemed to follow Elfangor’s legend even more than other Andalites. “Saving Aristh Aximili,” Marco commented.

Jake guessed he saw an Andalite gesture of confusion. “Saving Private Ryan is a classic human war story. When three of four brothers died in battle, command made a point of pulling the other out of combat,” he explained.

Ax got the point, but was surprised that humans still fought each other, or that human families were that large. He wondered how similar human war was to the struggle between Andalites and Yeerks. Jake wondered that too.

 

Obviously the Andalite Fleet would investigate in force after the loss of GalaxyTree, but it could take a year for reinforcements to arrive.

“A year?!” Marco said in a tone of voice that said all which needed to be said.

((Until my people return, I’m at your service, Prince Jake,)) he said.

“Welcome to Earth, but don’t call me prince,” Jake responded. This title would only add to the pressure of being leader, he figured.

 

Ax showed them around the ship while they rested from this round of morphing. ((The Yeerks would destroy this, any life beyond what host bodies need to feed. They’ve done that on all the planets they’ve conquered so far,)) he said, seething with fury. Jake saw extremely rare rage in Cassie.

 

The Animorphs learned that Dracons were a knockoff of Shredders which caused gratuitous pain. Andalites seemed quite proud of their devices, and dismissive of inferior technology. This was another way Earth would be quite a shock to him.

 

They were ready to make their escape. Cassie figured the fields of her family’s farm were a relatively good substitute for the terrain of the Dome. Ax had acquired a passing sea creature while waiting for rescue. It turned out to be a shark. _Lovely_. The Yeerks hadn’t found the dome yet – that was genuinely lovely.

 

The Animorphs plus one stopped at a small island on the way back to shore. Obviously, Ax could not travel to his new home in his natural state. He began to acquire Cassie, then Marco, finishing with Rachel and Jake. They felt the trance they had put a few animals in.

((Since I am a male, I am choosing a male morph,)) Ax announced.

“That’s fine. Rachel? Cassie? Don’t look, okay,” Jake said.

“Or look. He’s probably quite cute, being partially my DNA and all,” Marco suggested to thunderous silence. There were some extra clothes in their stash; the Animorphs turned around to see someone wearing underwear on their head non-ironically, and treating a T-shirt as a pair of shorts. Jake helped get those items to switch places as intended.

 

Ax looked like all four of them tossed into a blender, his height and build an average. The skin was light brown, instead of either pale or dark. Ax’s hair was mostly brown like Jake and Marco, with a bit of Rachel’s blond and Cassie’s curl. He could be passed off as a relative of any of them, easier than trying to explain a twin.

 

Ax assessed his new form. “It’s clear. Clear-uh. That artificial skin hides you from other humans. Hoo-mans. And protect from elements. Elle-mints.” He stumbled, used to having a third and fourth leg. He was getting used to a new morph, and a lot more than that.


	8. The Landing

            The Yeerks had infiltrated a public relations and advertising agency and had used it to prepare a recruitment campaign for The Sharing. The materials were being stored at the agency’s offices. Naturally, this called for Animorph sabotage. They would attack during the weekend. This meant they could work in daylight, but still have few people around.

 

            “I’d rather hang out with Marco than watch the Raiders get whooped by the Chargers,” Jake told Dad.

            “The ‘get whooped by the Chargers’ part was unnecessary,” he joked. “Have fun.”

 

            Ax and Marco went into a hardware store near the office complex. “The can-zuh of spray paint. Puh-aint,” he reported, unable … or unwilling … to fully control his use of the human mouth. They did want to destroy the ads for The Sharing, and this part would come off as petty vandalism at worst. The Animorphs could also spray something else as a diversion.

 

            Rachel started tagging the front door. ‘The Sharing’ was indeed something that ‘sux’. Since she hadn’t bought the paint, it would be harder to connect her to it. Also, though Jake hated to think it, he realized that people were less likely to give the conventionally attractive white girl any trouble.

            Ax walked around to the other side of the building while the rest of the Animorphs flew in that direction. Earlier in the week, their hawk-eyed reconnaissance team had discovered that one of the back doors looked easily pickable, plus had no security camera coverage and minimal other traffic.

            Ax got the door open as quickly as expected. The other Animorphs went through in various rodent morphs; the critters would be a normal problem for the building to have.

 

            “So this is what you humans call a shredder,” Ax said as Marco started feeding flyers into one. Ax gleefully blew off spray paint, ruining some of the other promotional objects with streaks of silver and gold. Jake and Cassie stood back as wolf and tiger, ready to fight.

 

            It seemed they would have to do that soon, as several team members picked up on heavy footsteps. A couple company employees had heard the noise. They found themselves having to deal with the four hundred pound gorilla in the room, knocked out by Marco’s fists before Jake or Cassie could strike with tooth and claw.

 

They moved on, the room mostly wrecked anyway. Ax gave his low opinion of human computing technology as he wiped Sharing-related files. Marco, Cassie and Jake were in bird of prey morphs, ready to both fight and flee. Tobias had said earlier that Rachel had joined him in providing air cover outside.

Inside, Ax had demorphed, and someone in the building knew exactly what they saw. “Chapman, we’ve got bandits at the office,” someone yelled into a cellphone. A free human would freak out, maybe report the intruders as burglars or something like that.

 

((Haul butt,)) Jake ordered.

((Yes, Prince Jake,)) Ax responded.

((Don’t call him ‘prince’,)) Marco interjected.

((Marco!)) Jake yelled in thoughtspeak.

((Polo!)) he responded. _That happens every time. Jake and Marco knew each other since they were babies. Yet Jake still didn’t see it coming._

 

Jake and Cassie flew out of the nearest open windows. He was afraid Tobias and Rachel hadn’t been watching that part of the building. Marco stayed behind while Ax morphed to harrier.

 

Jake and Cassie started to get worried when they couldn’t locate the other four Animorphs. They kept looking but still didn’t find them. At least they heard about them. Rachel’s thoughtspeak was faint but recognizable. ((I gotta get home … Marco is with Tobias and Ax watching the building.))

It was time for Jake and Cassie to land somewhere and demorph. For them, it was getting awfully close to two hours. They dived towards the nearest rooftop. Even in the panic of a mission, they recognized there was nothing quite like this rush in all their experiences as Animorphs.

 

Jake had too few minutes left, and was in a rush to not become a nothlit. Feathers melting into skin and bones realigning was now an experience he was used to and glad to have. Yet once his skin reformed, he realized he hadn’t appeared in his morphing outfit.

 

He was no longer a falcon, but Cassie was still an osprey. She had morphed a couple minutes after him, so neither of them were worried about her. ((Jake! Did you make it back to human?)) she said, her thoughtspeak tinged with panic.

“Yes,” he yelled back. She flew towards the sound of his voice. “But there’s a problem,” he said. He was embarrassed, but had expected to be even more so around Cassie.

((I don’t think it’s a problem at all,)) she said in a mix of bravery and nervousness.

Right now she felt downright beautiful to Jake. She always was especially beautiful when morphing, which all of the Animorphs recognized. This time, her receding feathers traced a pattern over her whole body except for her legs, and disappeared all at once as her purple bathing suit reappeared.

 

“Kiss me,” she asked. Jake didn’t need much prompting. Few teenage boys would, even those living far more normal lives. Pressing their lips together felt even better after this near-disaster. She sure seemed to enjoy touching the middle of his back and tracing her way down, though Jake was several inches taller than her. He began to kiss her all over. Making out in a sort of public space was hardly risky by their standards. “Let’s do it,” she added with a smile as their bodies drew closer. Her curly hair bounced as she swayed in his arms. Jake responded by caressing her butt with his hands. Jake felt himself about to explode, but in a good way. Fortunately, it seemed they could morph and demorph to not reveal the evidence.

 

Eventually Jake heard another familiar voice. ((Prince Jake, I did not contact you because you were clearly focused on a mating ritual,)) Ax said from above. _Well, that was one way to put it._ Right now, Jake did not care what Ax called him, after how Cassie had just been addressing him for the past several minutes. He kissed her one more time before she morphed osprey to fly back home.

Marco added his congratulations. It turned out Jake and Cassie had landed on top of a clothing store. While Marco was waiting for them, he had gotten Jake a T-shirt and shorts to wear back home.

 

Jake managed to control the spring in his step as he walked back into the house. Dad greeted him with a game report. “Missed a hell of a game, son.”

“Still think I found something better to do,” he insisted.

He went on. “Yeah, the first half was ugly, but the second was better. Field goal in the third made it an eight point game…”

“Miss a two point conversion?” Jake wondered sarcastically. He was doing a surprisingly good job of acting normally for trying to cover up both a battle and a date.

“Nah, they made one after a TD in the fourth. Tie game. Chargers kicker was the one blowing things,” Dad replied. “Some great action last few minutes of the game, only score is a Raiders field goal. That’s the game,” he said triumphantly.

“Defense did their job, glad to hear the offense finally did theirs,” he sarcastically congratulated.

 

Jake found Mom at her computer. “Leftover pasta in the fridge,” she said absentmindedly, focused on whatever it was she was writing. _Not a bad idea._ While he was waiting on the microwave, he got the idea to bake something. After finishing his second plate, he warned Mom that he was going to make a mess of the kitchen. He eventually produced a sweet loaf topped with yellow frosting to give to the young woman who was most definitely his girlfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a T-rated version of Lemon Cakes Chapter 1.


End file.
